West Auckland heavy industry site offers add-value play

A four-hectare, heavy industry-zoned land holding in Glendene is being brought to the market with vacant possession, giving buyers the chance to reposition a large-scale manufacturing and warehousing facility.  

CBRE has been appointed to sell 24 Bancroft Crescent, West Auckland, a long-held owner-occupied site that Sealed Air NZ Ltd is vacating as it consolidates operations into other facilities. 

John Bedford and Bruce Catley from CBRE’s Capital Markets Industrial & Logistics team are marketing the property for sale by deadline private treaty closing on April 16. 

The core opportunities are the ability to add value through well-considered alterations to what is already on the site, as well as construction of further buildings on the large portion of undeveloped land, said Catley.

“This is a substantial landholding for this part of Auckland, with low site coverage at 28 percent. That gives buyers good potential upside through adding more building coverage over time, alongside the opportunity to split the existing warehouse to accommodate multiple occupiers.”  

The freehold property has just under 12,000sqm of building area, constructed in stages beginning in the mid-1970s with a significant addition in the 1990s. The warehouse is in excellent tidy condition and has been well maintained by the outgoing occupier. The facility is also well-serviced by office space and staff amenities.

The facility has a strong manufacturing pedigree, having been originally developed by Tupperware New Zealand in the late 1970s and later purchased by Donaghy’s Industries in the mid-1980s. Sealed Air NZ acquired the site in 1997 for its New Zealand office, manufacturing and distribution centre.  

That history is underpinned by significant infrastructure that is increasingly hard to replicate in Auckland’s constrained industrial market, said Bedford. 

“During Tupperware’s tenure the site was developed with substantial electricity supply, sprinkler systems supported by an on-site water reservoir and a bunded dangerous goods facility. These fundamentals will appeal to a wide section of the local owner occupier market, particularly businesses needing higher levels of power and compliance-ready industrial infrastructure.”

The site also lends itself to repositioning for leasing. The property has two street entrances and the warehouse building can be readily split into two, which creates flexibility for either a single large occupier or multiple tenancies. That flexibility is central to the investment case, Bedford said.

“An owner-occupier could use part of the facility for their own operations and generate additional income from the balance, or alternatively, a developer may opt to undertake a full repositioning and lease the site to one or more occupiers. The physical layout makes that a highly realistic option.” 

There is also further development headroom. With only 28 percent of the land currently covered by buildings, there is opportunity for future construction, including additional industrial units accessed from the second entrance, or conversion of the grassed areas to additional yard space.  

Bedford said large, flat sites in established industrial suburbs, close to good workforces and with this level of development potential are tightly held.

“Glendene is a proven industrial precinct with surrounding occupiers in manufacturing and various service industries. The ability to buy a four-hectare heavy industry site here and then improve the site utilisation over time will be seen as a strategic opportunity,” Catley said.